


Jackpot

by CrackingLamb



Series: One Shot Wonders, A Collection of Junkyard Dogs Stories [7]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: A Bit of Fluff, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, F/M, some naughty language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 16:14:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13861389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrackingLamb/pseuds/CrackingLamb
Summary: Just another day in the Commonwealth...ferals, raiders...mini nukes...





	Jackpot

The high pitched whistle was all the warning they got.

Nora ducked down behind a wall and watched Hancock get thrown off his feet by the resounding blast as the mini nuke exploded. He wasn't hurt from what she could tell, just winded. Nora's Pip-Boy ticked so fast it sounded like a runaway ratchet. She reached into a pocket and downed a couple Rad-X dry, making a face as the pills fought against going down her throat. She frowned at the bottle; it was almost empty. Time to find more. No matter how much she hated taking the chalky pills, they were better than the living hell that was a dose of RadAway. And thinking about them both was not helping her focus on the task at hand.

“Where the hell do these raiders even find this shit?” she asked no one in particular. First it was the ferals in the Super Duper Mart, which frankly weren't all that big of a deal, but now some raiders on high were shooting small nuclear warheads at them.

Some days just sucked dead donkey balls.

“Ya all right, Sunshine?” Hancock called to her.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” She stood up again and brushed the gravel that had spit up around her from the blast off her sleeves. “Why are we here again?”

“Because your settlers at Starlight didn't like having ferals on their doorstep.”

She sniffed. “Right.”

Nora didn't have time for this, not really. She'd only stopped back in Sanctuary Hills with Hancock to plan her next move with Preston. Sturges was carefully solving the riddle of the Institute download, but hadn't made much headway. While they were there, a message had come through from Starlight Drive-In about wandering ferals up out of Lexington, and could she please go take care of them? With a sigh and a dark look at Preston – who could very easily have taken care of them himself, but she didn't want to push that particular button – off she went with her favorite ghoul.

Autumn had crept in around them while she had been busy trying to save her new world, turning what few trees lived into glorious riots of color, while everything else remained the same drab, dreary brown it always was. The air was cold, it was true, but it wasn't the same as before. Not like it used to be, chilly nights with frost nipping, warm fires in fireplaces, hot cocoa with marshmallows...

 _God, do I miss chocolate_ , she thought.

“Hey, Napoleon, great battle strategy, but can we get under some cover?” Hancock's sarcasm broke into her reverie.

“Yeah, yeah. Quit yer bitchin'. Not like any cover is gonna protect us if they have any more mini nukes.”

“Heh, I can take it.”

“Hancock, my love, I don't think even you could take a direct hit from a fat man,” Nora said scathingly. He cocked his head at her and grinned, his _'watch me_ ' expression written all over his face. “Let's not and say we did, huh?”

“Well, where do you want to set up shop then, love?”

“Hmm, that apartment building. Has all the stairs on the side? Good cover, gets us up high enough to see them coming. Pick'em off one by one.”

“Sounds good. After you.” He gestured broadly towards the center of Lexington with a grin. He knew as well as she did that she would never willingly leave raiders alive if she could help it. She still stuck her tongue out at him on principle and sneaked from shadow to shadow, ears straining to hear another telltale whistle. As she climbed the fire escape that had somehow escaped the devastation of the rest of the building, she pulled out her .50 cal sniper rifle. She thanked whatever impulse had made her bring it along. She knew she wouldn't need it for the ferals, but it _was_ Lexington after all. If it wasn't ferals, it was raiders. If it wasn't either of them, it was likely to be deathclaws...or super mutant behemoths.

On the top floor, which had taken so much damage it was open to the sky, she took a look through the scope and saw a power suited figure stalking back and forth in a ragged bridge made from planks and an old billboard frame.

“Son of a bitch...” she muttered under her breath, lining up her shot to wedge between the plates at the shoulder and neck. “Why does it always have be the fucking survivalists that have the biggest guns?”

She held her breath, steadying the heavy rifle and let the shot go. It was loud, of course, and the recoil threw off her aim. But she was prepared for it and had ducked down against the scant protection of the crumbling wall before the echo dissipated anyway. She heard the whistle of the fat man, but it wasn't coming towards their hiding spot.

Hancock moved off to her left, dancing gracefully around a couple beat up chairs and a chem laden table to take up a position on the far side of the remaining floor. He didn't often use anything other than his shotgun – or his knife – but he had taken Nora's highly modded combat rifle from her pack and held the sight up to his eye to aim. In rapid succession he shot off a series of rounds and one of the distant figures crossing the makeshift bridge tumbled off the edge to the street below.

“Nice shooting, love,” she praised with a smirking grin.

“You've corrupted me,” he replied. “I could get too used to a gun like this.”

Her grin turned lopsided at the affection in his tone. His bright red coat drew the raiders' attention and he casually stalked away from her hiding spot so she could line up another sniping shot. She focused on the power suited figure with the fat man, wearing him down until the power suit was splintered and in pieces. She had a clear headshot now, but she was also directly in the raider's line of sight. He raised the fat man and she held her breath, counting out beats and feeling the light cool breeze on her face. She corrected her stance and let off the shot just as the raider released the nuke in her direction. She saw a spray of blood from the raider and heard the distinctive high pitched whine before she crouched against the wall again.

The mini nuke landed at the foundation of the building, setting off a chain reaction in the derelict cars below, throwing up debris and a scorching wave of fire and radiation. Her Pip-Boy ticked away and she stumbled from the concussive force of all the blasts. Suddenly, all she could see was red.

“I gotcha,” Hancock said in her ear. He'd thrown himself over her, physically shielding her from the explosions with his own body. The building lurched and they fell to the floor with a combined thump. After the dust settled he was still there, propped on his elbows, his hands covering her exposed face. He drew them back, tracing along the edges of her magenta hair.

“Still enjoying the view, love?” she whispered.

“Always,” he growled and lowered his head to kiss her. He didn't linger, didn't tease. One rough, passionate kiss and he drew away, hauling himself to his feet before offering her a hand up. “Heh, what a mess.”

She looked down to where he was facing and saw what he meant. The wall they'd used as cover was now just plaster ash and twisted rebar. In the street below the torn apart bodies of the raiders mingled with the still burning bits of cars that had exploded from the mini nuke.

“You think there's anything even worth salvaging for scrap?” Nora asked, watching the breeze scatter the sparks and ash like leaves.

“Probably not,” Hancock said with his head cocked to the side. “Ain't no way it's safe for you to go down there yet.”

“Yeah, I know. I hate the thought of leaving a fat man where anyone can find it though.”

“I'll take a look, Sunshine. You stay here.”

“John...”

“I'll be fine. You keep a look out, and I'll soak up the rads. All right?”

She sighed, exasperated and touched simultaneously. It wasn't often she let someone else take the danger while she stayed behind. She knew he was right, of course. The rads wouldn't hurt him. But that wasn't the point. They didn't even know if all the raiders were dead. He hopped down from the broken floor of the building onto a pile of burning debris – since the stairs were now slag – and brushed himself off nonchalantly, earning himself a wry grin from her. She reloaded the .50 cal rifle and kept her eyes peeled for any movement that wasn't in a red frockcoat.

He didn't waste any time looking over the scattered remains of the raiders; he went straight to the opposite building and climbed up until he was visible on the bridge where the power suited one had been. Faintly over the sigh of the wind she heard his triumphant cry and smiled again to herself, shaking her head a little. He was like a kid at Christmas sometimes, she mused.

A few minutes later, he sauntered out of the building, the fat man balanced on his shoulder, a mini nuke in his hand.

“Jackpot,” he called up to her, his grin wide and toothy. He stood there with his legs planted wide, boisterous and effortlessly charming even in the midst of all that devastation. She couldn't have looked away from the sight of him for all the chocolate left in the world. God, did she love him!

“You said it, baby,” she murmured to herself, even though he couldn't hear. She still didn't think he fully realized that for her, the jackpot was him. But she was willing to spend the rest of her life proving it to him, if that's what it took.

She jumped down to the street level like he had and took the mini nuke from him to free up his hand. He kept the fat man on his shoulder, since there was no way she could carry it as well as all their other gear. Then hand in hand they started back towards Sanctuary Hills.

“All in a day's work, eh, Sunshine?”

“Sure, baby,” she chuckled. His teasing grin wiped away any misgivings she still had at taking down a nest of raiders like that. It was worth any risk to see him happy. For a moment she waited to see if the long silent voice of Nate would echo in her head like it used to. But there was nothing. Just her own happiness at being happy, even though the world was still shit and she had a job to do that was going to be difficult. In that moment, she was free to just be. And she had Hancock to thank for it.

 _Jackpot, indeed_ , she thought.

**Author's Note:**

> My very first playthrough I got nailed by these raiders in Lexington. And apparently there is an achievement for being killed by a mini nuke (why??). I know y'all are used to more smut from me, but this little scene was demanding to be written, so here it is.
> 
> Plus, I just wanted to use the line that Hancock says when you're out in the open.
> 
> Corresponds with Chapter 18 - The Rock and The Hard Place...more or less. It's sort of after that.


End file.
